I first heard about Earth Day in 1990 during a visit to see a friend of mine, Matt Astel, at SIU at Carbondale. I think it was during Springfest, and the students there had this huge beach-ball type ball of the Earth. Someone said, "Yea, it's Earth Day."
"Earth Day???????" I responded back. At that time, I started making all the jokes about burning tires, dumping styrofoam into a landfill and leaking freon from my air conditioner on Earth Day. Going on 20 years later, the humor continues.
In the mid-90's, I joined the Peoria Jaycees and became it's newsletter editor. For an April Fool's issue for April 1996, I presented this following story. And surprisingly, some people actually believed it. Enjoy!
Jaycees Announce Earth Day Festivities
Earth Day 1996 is to be held on Monday, April 22 and the Peoria Jaycees has a whole host of activities planned. "This is going the be the most exciting Earth Day in Central Illinois... ever!", exclaimed Peoria Jaycees president Steven J. West at a press conference on April 1. Commander West also claimed that the Peoria based volunteer organization was fired up and enthusiastic about the Earth Day projects it has planned. The now defunct Nature Conservancy committee reunited to handle the various activities that are to take place. Headed up by Beth Barr and Andrea Peters, several different types of projects to promote Earth Day and the environment will take place with different "teams" carrying out different assignments (see tentative schedule of events on page 3). "I'm really excited about this", stated Ms. Peters, "it's good to see that the Jaycees are concerned about the Earth's environment and are ready to do something about it. I just hope we have enough hours in the day to get everything done."
During the press conference, Ms. Barr and Ms. Peters explained how each team divided the project work. Dan Schmidt has volunteered to head the team to burn old truck tires in a corn field (in which Dan said 'burning tires makes you strong'). Rusty Greene is in charge of the team to dump volatile car batteries in the Illinois River. Another team, lead by Cindy Schwerer, is set to cut down several oak trees, making birds and squirrels homeless. Cindy was especially fond of this project as she had stated "The best thing about a tree is what you do with it after you cut it down." A fourth team which has yet to be assigned a leader will be releasing freon from air conditioners into the atmosphere. "The opportunities for Earth Day are endless", stated Ms. Barr, "we would like to encourage as many people as we can for our Earth Day festivities." If you are interested in helping out on Earth Day, please call the Jaycees hotline. And just remember, every day is Earth Day!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Life Without A Dog
It's been slightly a little over a month now without Trixie. It was (and still is) quite an adjustment to make, both large and small.
There's the obvious things, like not having to be home early to let her out or having to find a dogsitter for a long weekend. But smaller things you don't think of. I never realized how I subconsciously sat aside some morsels of food on the dinner plate for her to eat. And the first time I cut the grass this spring, I didn't have the "help" I was accustomed to. I would look around occasionally to make sure she was OK (she was blind the last couple of years), but then realized she wasn't there "helping" me cut the grass.
Beth is still dealing with her hives. Months before Trixie's passing, Beth began to get hives. She went to an allergy specialist, who claims that she ate something that triggered an allergic reaction to... get this... dogs. On a recent visit to her sister Kerri's, she began to break out in a very big way when she went to pet Kerri's dogs. Beth now believes it might be caffeine as she thinks in most all of those occasions, caffeine was involved.
We finally got Trixie's ashes back. It came complete in a really nice wooden box with a brass name plate with her name on it. Jack asked about where Trixie was buried, but I explained to him about cremation. "Let me see," he says. The ashes were in a bag, which he just had to touch... twice. Jack also has says on many occasions, that we "should get another tan dog, and if it is a girl dog, (we) can name her Trixie."
We hope to get a dog again someday, pending this hive business. It just won't be soon.
There's the obvious things, like not having to be home early to let her out or having to find a dogsitter for a long weekend. But smaller things you don't think of. I never realized how I subconsciously sat aside some morsels of food on the dinner plate for her to eat. And the first time I cut the grass this spring, I didn't have the "help" I was accustomed to. I would look around occasionally to make sure she was OK (she was blind the last couple of years), but then realized she wasn't there "helping" me cut the grass.
Beth is still dealing with her hives. Months before Trixie's passing, Beth began to get hives. She went to an allergy specialist, who claims that she ate something that triggered an allergic reaction to... get this... dogs. On a recent visit to her sister Kerri's, she began to break out in a very big way when she went to pet Kerri's dogs. Beth now believes it might be caffeine as she thinks in most all of those occasions, caffeine was involved.
We finally got Trixie's ashes back. It came complete in a really nice wooden box with a brass name plate with her name on it. Jack asked about where Trixie was buried, but I explained to him about cremation. "Let me see," he says. The ashes were in a bag, which he just had to touch... twice. Jack also has says on many occasions, that we "should get another tan dog, and if it is a girl dog, (we) can name her Trixie."
We hope to get a dog again someday, pending this hive business. It just won't be soon.
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